Integrating urban air mobility into the power grid through smart charging solutions

Adapting the existing power grid to support large-scale urban air mobility (UAM) operations using electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft presents a critical infrastructural challenge that needs to be tackled. To this end, this paper presents a framework for estimating the potential of smart charging to improve power system welfare when integrating large-scale UAM into the power grid. We first estimate passenger travel demand for UAM from location-based service (LBS) data. Then we obtain the feasible charging window of aircraft by solving a fleet dispatching problem to maximize the fulfillment of scheduled UAM travel demand. With consideration of power grid dynamics, we optimize the timing and rate of charging in each feasible charging window to maximize power system welfare without disturbing optimal fleet dispatch. Finally, uncertainties in arrival times and charging demands are managed with chance-constrained optimization. This ensures the failure probability for meeting charging demand stays below a set confidence level. The efficacy of the proposed approach was demonstrated by case studies using a 9-bus transmission system.